Modern Family and Breaking Bad won over Europe's oldest television festival, winning Golden Nymphs for best international comedy and best international drama series, respectively, at the 53rd Monte Carlo international television festival.

Ty Burrell of Modern Family won Monte Carlo's best comedic actor honor while Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston took the best drama actor award. Tina Fey won the best comedic actress prize for her role in 30 Rock. Denmark's Sofie Grabol prevented it from being a U.S. sweep, winning the best dramatic actress prize for her role as police commissioner Sarah Lund in the original Danish series The Killing.

Denmark's latest buzz drama, the political series Borgen, won best European drama at Monte Carlo, while best European comedy series went to the Brit university-set laffer Fresh Meat.

But American shows again dominated the audience award section of the festival, with The Mentalist winning best drama, The Big Bang Theory taking best comedy honors and long-running sudser The Bold and the Beautiful winning for best soap opera or telenovela.

European productions did better in the TV movies and mini-series categories, genres more neglected in the U.S. but still prime-time fare in Europe. The Hungarian TV movie Aglaja, a drama based on the real-life story of an Eastern European circus family that fled to the West, took home three Golden Nymphs: for best TV movie, best director for Krisztina Deak and best actress for Eszter Onodi. Another big winner was Spanish mini-series Letter to Eva, which took both best miniseries and best actress in the category for Julieta Cardinali.

The gala award ceremony took place Thursday night at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo.